OUR STORY

My husband Ertuğrul Bul and I have worked in the financial sector for many years as professionals who occasionally try entrepreneurship, and we still do. Our lavender story began when we questioned what we would do in retirement. Our plan was to buy a small house in the seaside town, which is the dream of all white-collar workers, to grow something in the garden if we are lucky, to relieve the tiredness of the years and to find peace. For now, we were thinking that we would go in the summer, and when the children fly away from home one by one to their future, we would extend our stay and spend a significant part of the year there. But as the realization of the plan approached, we realized that we cannot live without doing anything, we must continue to produce.

Ertuğrul is from Ürgüp. The summers of his childhood were spent in the houses of his both grandmothers from his father and mother in the square of Ürgüp. Every year we would go to Ürgüp and stay for 3-4 days. As an Izmirian (pearl of Aegean), my love for this magical land in the middle of Anatolia, without a sea, but make me feel like I was on another planet, began long before lavender.

After a road passed through our ancestral vineyard, another land was allocated in the newly prepared zoning plan, which has a daily facility development permit. Our friend, the founder of one of the first cave hotels called Yunak Evleri in Ürgüp, said, “A cafe with a lavender garden would be nice there”, and this has been the beginning of our lavender journey.

That land still stands empty. Our dream grew when we researched the lavender plant and learned how it heals both people and the soil, how contented it is with its demands for soil and climate, and that if we take care of it like our child in its first years, it aspires to take care of us for most of the rest of our lives. Our corporate identities and experiences came into play, and our lavender dreams turned into a business plan. We bought fields in Ortahisar in October 2020 and in Sofular Town in December 2020. We cleaned, improved and prepared our Ortahisar field in November 2020, our Sofular field in November 2021, and planted the a total of 80,000 Lavandula,angustifolia species (also called English lavender or original lavender) seedlings giving the world's best quality lavender essential oil, without using any chemicals. If you ask with what knowledge we have done all this; first of all, we have read a lot, researched, and talked to experienced people we could reach. We participated in the online "Aromatic and Medicinal Plants Certificate Program" of Eskişehir Osman Gazi University. Our classes, which lasted 3 hours after 6 pm on weekdays, lasted for a month and a half, and we received our certificates. Of course, we learned the most by experience.

Our Sofular field is on the banks of Kızılırmak. It always reminds me of the life-giving power of water. Different from Ortahisar, there are no trees on it. We are mostly surrounded by vineyards. But we planted linden trees on our border with the neighboring field. We dream that our lindens will grow together with our lavenders and we will have bees that will combine the aromas of both in their magnificent honey in the coming years.

Tarlada çalışmak, toprağa bulanmak, dağı bağ yapmanın mutluluğu bambaşka. Şunu rahatlıkla söyleyebilirim; modern insanın anda olma, huzur bulma arayışına bizim bulduğumuz yol toprakla uğraşmak oldu. İstanbul’da işlerimiz devam ediyor. Lavanta yetiştiriciliğini pandeminin bize sunduğu uzaktan çalışma fırsatı sayesinde yapabildik. Kasım aylarında dikim, baharla birlikte başlayan yabani ot mücadelesi, temmuz ayında hasat, hep İstanbul hayatımızdan çalabildiğimiz zamanlarda oldu. Ama sanki esas hayatımız artık orada, İstanbul’a geldiğimiz anda tarlamızı özlemeye başlıyoruz.

In July of 2021, our Ortahisar field slowly bloomed. We gathered our flowers, but our lavender was not even a year old, naturally we had few flowers, we did not evaluate it economically. We gave them to friends as a gift, and we had them analyzed. The results of the analysis showed us that our flowers have a very high quality essential oil, and we happily learned that we were on the right track. Most importantly, we met with that wonderful scent of lavender. There could not be a more beautiful flower for us now.

2022 Temmuz ayında ise ilk hasat heyecanını yaşadık. Ortahisar tarlamız artık bir buçuk yaşını geçmişti ve çiçeklerimiz bizi şaşırtacak kadar çok büyüdü. Hasat o güne kadar tarlada yaptığımız en zevkli işti. Bizi yalnız bırakmayan tanıdıklarımız, her zaman tarlamızda çalışan Ürgüp’ün çalışkan kadınları ve biz, hep birlikte sabah 5:00’den akşama kadar enerjimizi kaybetmeden çalıştık. Bunu lavantanın canlandırıcı kokusuna yoruyorum. Çiçeklerimizi bekletmeden Kayseri’deki distilasyon tesisine götürdük ve gece 11:30’da eve döndüğümüzde uçucu yağımız ve lavanta sularımız en saf ve doğal haliyle elimizdeydi.

Fiona's Lavender Lavender Essential Oil and Fiona's Lavender Lavender Water işte bu yolcuğun ürünleri. Saflıklarını ve doğallıklarını koruyarak şişelendiler, kutularına girdiler. Sofular tarlamızdan topladığımız çiçekleri ise kuruttuk. Onlar da keselere, göz yastıklarına, kitap ayraçlarına doldular, muhteşem kokularını saçıyorlar. Hatta Eylül ayında asmalarımız üzümlendi, lavantalı pekmez oldu. Fiona’s Lavender products are meeting with their enthusiasts in our shop in the square of Ürgüp, in Cappadocia.

Şimdi hedefimiz lavantalı kişisel bakım ürünleri ve lavantalı gıdalar geliştirmek. Ayrıca Ortahisar tarlamız üçüncü senesinin sonunda tam verime ulaşınca, güzelliğini paylaşmak isteyenlere açmak.

If you ask who is Fiona; she is our angel Golden Retreiver girl, one of our dog friends sharing our home, adding another beauty, joy and meaning to our lives. She is no longer with us now.

Aycan Bul, Phd.